morel mushrooms

morel mushrooms

According to the Columbus Dispatch and www.morels.com we should start finding these tasty morsels in our woods this weekend. Morels like warm days, cool nights and moist soil. Our forecast is highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s and rain on Thursday. Perfect! I like them best in a cream sauce on roast duck but plain sautéed in butter with shallots and parsley is great too. Happy foraging and good luck to all you morel lovers!

Apparently a bit to the south makes a huge difference! We don't usually get them until around Mother's Day. I've not been in years, though...have to depend on the generosity of friends to get my morel fix. Usually I just saute in butter with garlic or onion, but I used to make a stuffing for chicken that was amazing.

felix I spoke to my former MIL last night, she lives in Rapid City and is the absolute QUEEN of morels. She said she is going out this weekend also. You may be getting your morel fix before Mother's Day!

I find they pair especially well with fowl....duck, chicken, guinea hen, pheasant, Cornish game hens......and pork. Wash them well several times in cold water and make sure they are very dry. I sometimes put them on a drying rack in a 150 degree oven for 10 mins. Large ones I cut in half, the others leave whole. Saute them in some butter with shallots and/or garlic then add to the pan juices from the meat. Add cream if you desire or thicken with a little roux or cornstarch. Spoon over the meat and swoon! You can also just sauté them as any other mushroom and serve as a side with steak.

I have to FIND them first!! Way too hot yesterday, 85, the woods were dry as a bone. Supposed to be same for today. Crossing my fingers for rain tomorrow. BTW, MH is allergic to mushrooms so I don't have to share!

mar When I lived in PA I could never find morels, neither fresh nor dried! Out of desperation I had my uncle in Michigan send me some dried and they really were quite good. I reconstituted them in chicken stock and used that as the base of my sauce.

marWhen I lived in PA I could never find morels, neither fresh nor dried! Out of desperation I had my uncle in Michigan send me some dried and they really were quite good. I reconstituted them in chicken stock and used that as the base of my sauce.

DAMN!.no Morels in PA! Cancels the order to rent the pig, sells off the 8.5 acres around the house, gives up the membership in the organization that controls about 80,000 acres. Screams at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Fresh Foods and hopes some wandering peddler sidles up to the back door with some purloined morels from Gawd knows where

mar The only thing I use water for is blanching vegetables, cooking pasta, ice cubes and occasionally a glass for drinking. About grinding the dried ones, I would not recommend it as the morels still contain some sand or soil. When you reconstitute, do not use all of the liquid as there is a certain amount of grit on the bottom. It's raining today!! Yippee! I may have some luck tomorrow.

This was my take in my back yard a couple of years ago. If there are any this year I am not home and besides there is probably a foot of snow on the ground in the Twin Cities. The puffballs in my yard are more impressive.

Those are some beauties! It didn't rain yesterday, it poured. All night too and today there's no sun so it's not looking good. I'll go take a look around this afternoon but I'm not too hopeful. It's supposed to be better weather Sat. and Sunday. Yesterday at Giant Eagle I noticed they had expanded their dried mushroom section and sure enough, they had morels. $8.99 for 1/2 oz. If I get really desperate....

I got this message from my mushroom club, looks like it may be a great year for them.

"Checked an early morel spot on Thursday. No morels yet, but I think they will start up early next week. Looks like it's gonna be a real good start to the season. Cool/cold followed by a warmup, followed by chilly weather with soaking rain, followed by weekend nights staying above 30F, followed by a warmup next week with some showers. These are very good conditions to start. Key features... significant rainfall a few days before the Black Morels start, with nighttime temps not getting too low, and then sunny and mild. I measured 0.6" from the t-storm Wednesday afternoon followed by 0.4" soaking rainfall Wednesday night, and now we're in the midst of a real soaker."

Sounds just about the same forecast for us in Gahanna. Still a little chilly today but supposed to warm up tomorrow and Monday. Weiland's is selling them for $55/lb.! I'll take my chances and walk through the woods!

felix That's horrible! Which means my former MIL in Rapid City won't be looking for them either. We're supposed to hit 71 tomorrow and 75 Monday. High this afternoon is around 56. I'll go out and snoop around later.

Yeah, up there she's got to have at least six inches of snow on the ground at this point. With ice both under and on top of it. We're supposed to hit 63 on Thursday, but the extended 10-day forecast has us never getting above 50 after that, and often below freezing at night. And she's a little over two hours north of me.